Watch What You Post & Sharing "Kruzhba"

So for Boarder/Ski Cross, I am now in the bleachers, shooting friends and family and crowd. Everybody's changing up for variety¹s sake. The super slo-mo I was doing was fun because it was such a challenge, but I think I’ll welcome the change ­ because there will be a lot less stress with this assignment. With the former, I frankly cringed each time the replays began rolling, as that’s when the focus failures were accentuated. 90% of the time, mine worked. But those other 10% get a major tongue lashing from the director that everyone on the crew hears, and they¹re tough to recover from ego-wise. On the other hand, I was a hero when I got it tight and sharp (almost all of the time).

I hope I’m not jinxing myself, but this new position I can do in my sleep. It requires an ability to run fast with a camera and assistant in tow all over the stadium to get the appropriate fans waving flags for their athlete. So I will have my running shoes on but this one, I got.

One of the guys on our crew is being threatened with expulsion from the country because he posted some pix on Instagram with “negative” captions. Wow. He took them down, but fears his phone is now hacked as it’s always warm and the battery runs out in 2 hours every day. So, Big Bro is watching.

Careful what you wish for, weather-wise. It’s been so nice, it’s threatening the venue. The courses are soft and slushy and the surrounding areas are really ugly for TV. Hysterically, those sniper tents I showed you earlier now stick out like a sore thumb. They should bring in their summer camo.

Credit Bart Garton

2/15- Had one of the best nights of my life. The evening of Russian vs. USA hockey game, enjoyed in a local pub. First of all, it was a KILLER game. But mainly, there were perhaps 30 Americans and 90 Russians, all practicing “Kruzhba” or “Friendship”. I was the first from our crew to show up, and I stood there looking for a spot we could all fit. A table of 7 from the town of Krosnodar invited me to sit with them. We became fast friends (they spoke English somewhat) and eventually, as the rest of my crew came in, we all yelled back and forth to each other and toasted and cheered for our teams and blew horns and harmonicas. It was just spectacular. A bit of a controversial US goal didn’t dampen things, and when the Americans put the last puck in during the sudden death shoot out, we all slapped backs and continued on through the night. Fantastic.